EVEolution - A cruiser setup is re-born.
The planning
I set my mind to fit an outstanding all around cruiser. To be able to face the afterburner Incursus orbiting under my nose, the kiting Caracal, the occasional battlecruiser or even a mighty battleship exploring the depths of space... The "Swiss Army" cruiser, aka "The Holy Grail" of all cruisers.
In the rock paper scissor world of New Eden, I've started making plans. Checking forums, killboards, videos. Wrote down every possible scenario I could have imagine and what it is "a must to survive" or at least, escape with the hull. From the start I ruled out missiles. Why? I don't know. Maybe next time. So turret ships... what I need if I encounter a...
Solo brawling frigate/destroyer:
- Tracking speed.
- Drones. 2 full sets would be great. Anything more than 5 small ones will do.
- Neuts. 2 small or a medium.
- Web.
Should do it. Web it, neut it, hit it with turrets and drones. The web should slow it just enough to get some hits (if I decide to try to neglect its orbit), the drones to provide additional DPS and the neut just to make its tanking job miserable.
Solo kiting frigate/destroyer:
- Falloff. Need to be able to apply damage up to 25km to neglect the range.
- Speed. Slingshots!
The idea is either to align to a celestial full speed, forcing the enemy to lower transversal as it tries to adjust its orbit to keep up with me. That way it either falls behind me and the point drops and I can warp off or I can land some nice hits when the transversal is lower. I just need to pick the spot correctly, meaning that I have to align in the opposite direction forcing the enemy to come after me. I call it a defensive slingshoting maneuver.
If I can fit a web/scram, I can try to stop and if my ship's agility permits, burn back to the enemy while it tries to catch up with me, webbing and scramming it (in my little EVE tactics books codenamed: offensive slingshot)
Small gangs of frigates/destroyers:
- Both of the above to survive
- Strong local tank/Speed and agility to split them
I need DPS to take them fast to neglect the incoming DPS. Then I need to be able to handle both type of enemies. Brawlers and kiters. And I need to survive. Either by a strong local tank (2 repair modules - armor or shield) or the speed to spread them (like beads on a string) so I can pick them one by one.
Here it becomes tricky. Usually armor fits are considered slower than the shield one. There are 2 reasons for that (used to be 3 - but the penalty for armor rep rigs changed):
- Ships that are suitable for armor tanking have the base speed lower than the one suitable for shield tanking
- Ships that shield tank have some free low slots to snap in a nano or some other speed/agility module, while the armor tank ships use all their low slots for tank and DPS.
What if I will encounter a cruiser? All the above should apply. More or less (hopefully more than less).
How about battlecruisers/battleships? Well... looks like the same. They wont be able to kite me so easily, so I can rule this out. The big falloff range of the turrets can help me kite them! Also, I can go under their guns, and orbit them close, making tracking impossible for their large guns.
Here I need to make a decision. It's gonna be up and personal? Or the sneaky way of kiting...
We will see... But I smell shrapnel, blood and explosions...
